Oprah's new book club choices are a blast from the past

Courtney CrowderTribune Reporter

On Monday's show, Oprah Winfrey announced her new book club selections for the winter: "A Tale of Two Cities" and "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens.

While in recent years Oprah has stuck to choosing newer releases, in the past she has been known to pick classics such as "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a 2007 selection, and "Night" by Elie Wiesel, a 2006 choice. In 2004, three of her four book choices were classics: "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck, "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy and "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

The double dose of Dickens is Oprah's second pick of 2010 and only her fifth pick since 2007. The book club began in 1996 and has deemed a total of 64 books worthy of the famous "O" cover sticker, which marks the tome as an official book club selection.

In September, Oprah chose "Freedom" by Jonathan Franzen, which indicated the end of past bad blood between the talk show host and the author. The rift started in 2001 when Oprah choose Franzen's third novel "The Corrections" as a club selection. After the announcement was made, Franzen gave interviews claiming he was less than excited about the book's inclusion because he feared it would drive away male readers. In response, Oprah disinvited the author to appear on her show and quickly moved on to her next book choice.

With her announcement of "Freedom" as the new selection in September, Oprah called the book a "masterpiece" and "one of the best novels (she had) ever read." Franzen also appeared on Monday's show to cap off the club's reading of his novel.

Along with "Freedom" book choice announcement, Oprah said she will continue to make book club selections all season long and will even bring the book club to her new network, OWN.

"A Tale of Two Cities," first published as weekly installments in the journal "All The Year Round" from April to November of 1859, takes place in both London and Paris and tells the story of how several people in different social positions fair both before and after the French Revolution. Another story of the strength of Europe's social class hierarchy, "Great Expectations" describes the journey of an orphan, Pip, who tries to move social classes and become a gentleman. This Dickens tale was also published in serial form first, appearing in "All the Year Round" from December 1860 to August 1861.

The Oprah Web site has already posted reading guides and discussion questions for the new picks. Also, don't worry about having to find these books in the classics section, the famous novels have been combined into one book, which book store patrons wont be able to miss with a bright red and white cover and that famous "O" in the upper right hand corner.